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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Shame & Prejudice

Dalai Lama Warns
Against Taking Too Many Migrants, Arab Domination: ‘Migrants Should Return’. “When we look at
the face of each refugee, but especially those of the children and women, we
feel their suffering, and a human being who has a better situation in life has the
responsibility to help them. But on the other hand, there are too many at the
moment… Europe, Germany in particular, cannot become an Arab country, Germany
is Germany.” Despite the large influx involved, the fact remains that we
are in no way dealing with numbers that can change the demographic realities of
Europe. Germany will not be overwhelmed by Arabs, not today, not tomorrow, not
ever. But, with the Dalai Lama now joining the ranks of populist fearmongering leaders
catering to the prejudices and fears of the crowds and echoing their
ill-informed opinions and sentiments, it’s becoming increasingly clear that we
are still going down that slippery slope of paranoia towards a dark end.

The points raised by the Dalai Lama are
infantile to say the least. The idea that refugees who braved the dangerous
journey to Europe, and who did so either because they had nothing to begin
with, or because they had lost everything, could actually be forced years later
to leave their new life and go back “home,” misses the whole social, economic
and psychological dynamics involved in this phenomenon. How many times can one
endure becoming dispossessed? How many times can one build or rebuild a life
for oneself and one’s family? More importantly, how many times in the modern
world have refugees been able to return to their countries of origin? Except in
the case of West European refugees during WWI and WWII, and refugees from
short-duration conflicts, the option of returning “home” has not proven to be a
practical one for the overwhelming number of refugees.

So, what does it say about our era when
someone with the moral and intellectual stature of the Dalai Lama fails to
understand what a tragedy like the current global refugee crisis entails to
those who go through it?

But these unfortunate remarks by the Dalai
Lama point to an issue that is often overlooked in the media and academic
circles, but when which is bound to become more relevant in the coming decades,
the fact that the peoples of the Far East are no less susceptible to the lure
of dangerous stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims than those of the West. In
fact, not long ago, the dismissive
stance adopted by Aung San Suu Kye towards the treatment of the Rohingya in her
country puzzled and disappointed many of her admirers, especially those of
Muslim and Arab backgrounds. Of course, Arabs and Muslims are not innocent in
this regard, they, too, believe in many negative stereotypes about others, not
to mention even each other. But the culpability of all excuses none, especially
those who occupy positions of moral influence.

Speaking of the Far East:Syrian refugees
stuck in limbo at Seoul airport. Muhammed is in his early 20s. He escaped from Aleppo when
his house was destroyed and Bashar al-Assad's government called him up for
military service. "Some are running away from joining the army, some are
running away from the government and the military service," he said
through a mobile video call. "We ran away from Syria because we don't want
to be part of the war. We don't want to hold a gun." But, I think
there is little reason to worry that the Korean peninsula might be on its way
to becoming an Arab country. After all, we are only talking about a few dozen
people here.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World